Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX

National Compensation Survey

June 1998

________________________________________________________________________________________________

U.S. Department of Labor

Alexis M. Herman, Secretary

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Katharine G. Abraham, Commissioner

July 1999

Bulletin 3095-20
Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX

Metropolitan Statistical Area

Brownsville

Cameron

San Benito

Harlingen
iii

Preface

his bulletin provides results of a June 1998 survey of

occupational pay in the Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito, TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Data

shown in this bulletin were collected as part of the Bureau

of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) new program known as the National Compensation Survey (NCS).

The survey could not have been conducted without the

cooperation of the many private firms and government jurisdictions that provided pay data included in this bulletin.

The Bureau thanks these respondents for their cooperation.

Survey data were collected and reviewed by Bureau of

Labor Statistics field economists under the direction of Hal

Corley, Assistant Regional Commissioner for Operations of

the Dallas Regional Office. The Office of Compensation

and Working Conditions, in cooperation with the Office of

Field Operations and the Office of Technology and Survey

Processing in the BLS National Office, designed the survey, processed the data, and analyzed the survey results.

For additional information regarding this survey, please

contact the BLS Dallas Regional Office at (214) 767-6970.

You may also write to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at:

Division of Compensation Data Analysis and Planning, 2

Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Room 4175, Washington, DC

20212-0001, or call (202) 606-6220, or send e-mail to

ocltinfo@bls.gov.

The data contained in this bulletin are also available at

the BLS Internet site (http://stats.bls.gov/comhome.htm).

Data are in three formats: an ASCII file containing the

published table formats; an ASCII file containing positional

columns of data for manipulation as a data base or spreadsheet; and a Portable Document Format (PDF) file containing the entire bulletin.

Material in this bulletin is in the public domain and,

with appropriate credit, may be reproduced without permission. This information will be made available to sensory

impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202)

606-7828; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.

T
v

Contents

Page

Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 1

Wages in the Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX, MSA..................................................................... 2

Tables:

A-1. Hourly earnings for selected occupations, all workers, all industries........................................... 4

A-2. Hourly earnings for selected occupations, all workers, private industry and

 State and local government........................................................................................................... 6

A-3. Hourly earnings for selected occupations, full-time and part-time workers,

 all industries ................................................................................................................................. 8

A-4. Weekly and annual earnings and hours for selected occupations,

 full-time workers only, all industries ............................................................................................ 10

B-1. Mean hourly earnings by occupational group and levels, all industries,

 private industry, State and local government, full-time and part-time workers ............................ 12

B-2. Mean hourly earnings for selected occupations and levels, all industries,

 private industry, State and local government, full-time and part-time workers ............................ 15

C-1. Mean hourly earnings by occupational group and selected characteristics,

 all industries ................................................................................................................................. 17

C-2. Mean hourly earnings by occupational group and industry division,

 private industry, all workers ......................................................................................................... 18

C-3. Mean hourly earnings by occupational group and establishment employment size,

 private industry, all workers ......................................................................................................... 19

C-4. Number of workers represented by occupational group ............................................................... 20

Appendix A:

Technical Note ..................................................................................................................................... 21

 Appendix table 1. Number of establishments studied and represented............................................ 25

 Appendix table 2. Relative standard errors...................................................................................... 26

 Appendix table 3. Average work levels........................................................................................... 28
1

Introduction

his survey of occupational pay was conducted in the

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX, Metropolitan

Statistical Area (MSA). The MSA includes Cameron

County.

This bulletin consists primarily of tables whose data are

analyzed in the initial textual section. Tabulations provide

information on earnings of workers in a variety of occupations and at a wide range of work levels. Also contained in

this bulletin is information on the program, a technical note

describing survey procedures, and several appendixes with

detailed information on occupational classifications and the

generic leveling methodology.

NCS design and products

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) new National Compensation Survey (NCS) is designed to provide data on the

levels and rates of change of occupational wages and employee benefits for localities, broad geographic regions,

and the nation as a whole. One output of the NCS will be

the Employment Cost Index, a quarterly measure of the

change in employer costs for wages and benefits. This

bulletin is limited to data on wages and salaries. These

data are similar to those released under the Occupational

Compensation Survey (OCS), which has been discontinued.

NCS more extensive than OCS

The wage data in this bulletin differ from those in previous

Occupational Compensation Surveys by providing broader

coverage of occupations and establishments within the survey area.

Occupations surveyed for this bulletin were selected

using probability techniques from a list of all those present

in each establishment. Previous OCS bulletins were limited to a preselected list of occupations, which represented

a small subset of all occupations in the economy. Information in the new bulletin is published for a variety of occupation-based data. This new approach includes data on

broad occupational classifications such as white-collar

workers, major occupational groups such as sales workers,

and individual occupations such as cashiers.

In tables containing work levels within occupational series, the work levels are derived from generic standards that

apply to all occupational groups. The job levels in the

OCS bulletins were based on narrowly-defined descriptions

that were not comparable across specific occupations.

Occupational data in this bulletin are also tabulated for

other classifications such as industry group, full-time versus part-time workers, union versus nonunion status, time

versus incentive status, and establishment employment size.

Not all of these series were generated by the OCS program.

The establishments surveyed for this bulletin were limited

to those with 50 or more employees. Eventually, NCS will

be expanded to cover those now-excluded establishments.

Then, virtually all workers in the civilian economy will be

surveyed, excluding only agriculture, private households,

and employees of the Federal Government.

T
2

Wages in the

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX

Metropolitan Statistical Area

traight-time wages in the Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito, TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area averaged

$10.95 per hour during June 1998. White-collar workers

had an average wage of $15.05 per hour. Blue-collar

workers averaged $8.05 per hour, while service workers

had average earnings of $6.44 per hour. (All hourly rates

in this summary cover both full- and part-time workers,

unless otherwise noted.)

0

5

10

15

20

Chart 1. Average hourly wage rates by occupational 

group, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX June 1998. 

Dollars per hour

$

Whitecollar

Bluecollar

Service

workers

Within each of these occupational groups, average

hourly wages for individual occupations were estimated.

For example, white-collar occupations included registered

nurses at $19.29 per hour, secretaries at $8.83, and general

office clerks at $7.95. Among occupations in the bluecollar category, truck drivers averaged $8.81 per hour

while stock handlers and baggers averaged $5.55. Finally,

service occupations included janitors and cleaners at $6.37

per hour and nursing aides, orderlies and attendants at

$6.33 per hour. Table A-1 presents earnings data for 35

detailed occupations; data for other detailed occupations

surveyed could not be reported separately due to concerns

about the confidentiality of survey respondents and the reliability of the data.

Survey results show that private industry workers in

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX earned $9.41 per

hour, while surveyed State and local government workers

averaged $13.91. Table A-2 reports the average hourly

rate for white-collar occupations as $13.50 in private industry and $16.75 in State and local government. Bluecollar occupations showed an average hourly rate of $7.84

in private industry and $9.50 in State and local government. Service occupations within private industry averaged

$5.60 per hour while those found in State and local government averaged $8.12.

0

5

10

15

20

White-collar Blue-collar Service

Private industry State and local government

Chart 2. Average hourly rates for private industry and 

State and local government, Brownsville-Harlingen-San 

Benito, TX, June 1998

Dollars per hour

$

Table A-3 presents data for workers considered by the

survey respondents to be either full-time or part-time. Average wages for full-time workers, all occupations, were

$11.84 per hour, compared with an average of $5.69 per

hour for part-time workers.

Data for specific work levels within major occupational

groups are reported in table B-1. Occasionally, wage estimates for lower levels of work within major occupational

groups are greater than estimates for higher levels. This

can occur due to the mix of specific occupations (and industries) represented by the broad group as well as by the

variability of the estimate. Some levels within a group may

S
3

not be published because no workers were identified at that

level or because there were not enough data to guarantee

confidentiality and reliability.

Work levels for all major groups span several levels,

with professional specialty occupations and executive, administrative, and managerial occupations typically starting

and ending at higher work levels than the other groups.

Published data for administrative support occupations, including clerical, ranged from level 1 to level 7. As illustrated in chart 3, the average hourly rate was $6.84 for level

1, $6.87 for level 2, $7.56 for level 3, and $8.86 for level 4.

0

2

4

6

8

10

1234

Level

Chart 3. Average hourly rates by work level for 

administrative support occupations, including clerical, 

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX, June 1998

Dollars per hour

$

Surveyed union workers had an average hourly rate of

$13.51, as reported in table C-1. Wages for nonunion

workers averaged $10.85. Time workers, whose wages

were based solely on an hourly rate or a salary, averaged

$11.22 per hour. Incentive workers, whose wages were at

least partially based on productivity payments, averaged

$8.38 per hour.

Table C-2 shows wage data for specific industry divisions within private industry. In the private sector, hourly

wages averaged $9.60 in all goods-producing industries

and $9.66 in manufacturing. Hourly wages averaged $9.32

in all service-producing industries, $13.57 in transportation, and public utilities, $6.97 in wholesale and retail

trade, and $9.28 in services. Data for other industry divisions did not meet publication criteria.

Table C-4 reports that a total of 51,281 workers were

represented by the Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX

survey. White-collar occupations included 24,074 workers,

or 47 percent; blue-collar occupations included 13,009

workers, or 25 percent; and service occupations included

14,198 workers, or 28 percent.

0

10

20

30

40

50

Chart 4. Distribution of workers represented by

occupational group, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, 

TX, June 1998

Percent

Whitecollar

BluecollarService

 workers

Data are also presented in appendix table 1 on the number of establishments studied by industry group and employment size. The relative standard errors of published

mean hourly earnings for all industries, private industry,

and State and local government are available in appendix

table 2. The average work levels for published occupational groups and selected occupations are presented in appendix table 3.
Table A-1. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, all workers2, all industries,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation3

All industries

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90

All occupations ....................................................................... $10.95 $5.16 $5.93 $7.99 $12.93 $22.02

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 11.07 5.16 5.93 7.99 13.64 22.50

White-collar occupations ................................................... 15.05 6.09 7.89 12.27 20.41 27.05

White-collar occupations excluding sales ......................... 15.89 6.60 8.29 14.13 21.12 27.32

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 19.38 10.75 14.12 18.67 25.04 28.27

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 20.98 11.53 16.14 20.55 26.14 29.27

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ....................... 24.49 15.33 18.89 25.55 28.26 32.19

Mathematical and computer scientists ..................... – – – – – –

Health related occupations ....................................... 20.58 15.17 17.02 19.27 23.23 27.79

Registered nurses ................................................ 19.29 15.40 17.22 18.62 20.56 24.00

Teachers, college and university .............................. – – – – – –

Teachers, except college and university .................. 23.87 18.18 20.11 24.28 27.27 30.02

Elementary school teachers ................................. 23.77 18.00 19.80 24.11 27.02 29.64

Secondary school teachers .................................. 23.69 18.18 19.95 23.09 26.92 30.33

Librarians, archivists, and curators ........................... – – – – – –

Social, recreation, and religious workers .................. 12.69 10.51 11.17 12.27 14.36 14.82

Social workers ...................................................... 12.69 10.51 11.17 12.27 14.36 14.82

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes, and

professionals, N.E.C. .......................................... – – – – – –

Technical occupations .................................................. 13.05 7.71 10.26 13.86 15.58 18.14

Licensed practical nurses ..................................... 13.93 10.79 12.00 14.02 15.06 16.62

Health technologists and technicians, N.E.C. ....... 11.43 5.64 5.81 11.12 14.38 18.14

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 22.91 11.98 16.67 19.72 26.50 31.73

Executives, administrators, and managers ............... 24.70 13.50 16.82 22.62 27.05 37.36

Administrators and officials, public administration 22.14 11.98 17.50 19.72 26.97 37.36

Managers, medicine and health ........................... 25.06 11.80 14.10 21.02 41.17 41.17

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. .................. 33.37 16.36 19.43 23.45 31.73 86.54

Management related occupations ............................ 15.24 11.79 12.02 14.52 18.60 19.30

Sales occupations ............................................................ 8.99 5.15 5.26 7.76 9.40 12.40

Sales workers, other commodities ........................ 7.61 5.20 5.20 7.75 8.75 10.20

Cashiers ............................................................... 6.31 5.15 5.15 5.25 7.75 9.10

Administrative support occupations, including clerical ..... 8.45 5.90 6.60 7.82 8.92 10.84

Secretaries ........................................................... 8.83 7.77 8.07 8.58 9.32 10.19

Records clerks, N.E.C. ......................................... 6.76 5.50 6.02 6.95 7.13 7.85

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks ...... 7.43 5.90 7.32 7.32 8.05 8.95

Stock and inventory clerks .................................... 9.43 6.53 6.53 8.29 10.02 15.81

General office clerks ............................................. 7.95 6.20 6.67 7.85 8.78 9.60

Teachers’ aides .................................................... 7.29 5.83 5.98 6.95 7.52 9.97

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 8.05 5.17 5.78 7.00 9.15 11.46

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 11.52 6.18 8.49 10.93 12.81 18.86

Water and sewer treatment plant operators ......... 8.03 5.61 6.38 8.89 9.33 9.47

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 7.19 5.35 5.93 6.97 8.26 9.15

Textile sewing machine operators ........................ 7.41 5.65 5.93 7.51 8.85 9.27

Miscellaneous machine operators, N.E.C. ........... 7.30 5.35 6.07 7.35 8.23 8.80

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 8.68 5.75 6.25 7.72 10.43 13.30

Truck drivers ......................................................... 8.81 5.17 5.75 7.48 12.00 14.38

Driver-sales workers ............................................. 10.44 7.63 9.04 10.10 11.81 13.30

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ...... 6.11 5.15 5.15 5.64 6.45 8.17

Helpers, construction trades ................................. 6.03 5.15 5.78 6.00 6.25 6.39

Stock handlers and baggers ................................. 5.55 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4)

Freight, stock, and material handlers, N.E.C. ....... 7.85 5.25 5.54 8.65 9.01 10.65

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. ................... 6.53 5.15 5.15 5.94 7.77 9.29

Service occupations ........................................................... 6.44 5.15 5.16 5.72 7.35 9.47

Protective service occupations ................................. 9.90 6.95 7.57 9.62 10.58 15.61

Police and detectives, public service .................... 12.24 9.83 9.96 10.58 15.58 16.16

Food service occupations ......................................... 5.75 2.58 5.15 5.25 6.50 9.05

Waiters and waitresses ........................................ 2.81 2.13 2.13 2.15 2.58 5.15

Cooks ................................................................... 5.85 5.15 5.25 5.48 6.47 7.22

Kitchen workers, food preparation ........................ 5.77 4.76 5.13 5.82 6.10 6.90

Health service occupations ....................................... 6.83 5.30 5.62 6.98 7.77 8.17

Health aides, except nursing ................................ 7.50 6.08 7.30 7.43 8.07 8.19

Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants ............... 6.33 5.30 5.30 5.87 7.10 8.00

See footnotes at end of table.

4
Table A-1. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, all workers2, all industries,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

Occupation3

All industries

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90

Service occupations (-Continued)

Cleaning and building service occupations .............. $6.24 $5.15 $5.30 $6.06 $6.75 $7.75

Maids and housemen ........................................... 5.63 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4)

Janitors and cleaners ........................................... 6.37 5.15 5.50 6.19 6.93 8.13

Personal service occupations ................................... 5.36 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 6.06

Welfare service aides ........................................... 5.24 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.43

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid

to employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living

adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for

overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. 

The mean is computed by totaling the pay of all workers and

dividing by the number of workers, weighted by hours. The 10th,

25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles designate position in the

earnings distribution. At the 50th percentile, the median, half of

the workers receive the same as or more than the rate shown,

and half receive the same as or less than the rate shown. At the

25th percentile, one-fourth of the workers earn the same as or

less than the rate shown. At the 75th percentile, one-fourth earn

the same as or more than the rate shown. The 10th and 90th

percentiles follow the same logic. 2 All workers include full-time and part-time workers.

Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a

part-time schedule based on the definition used by each

establishment. Therefore, a worker with a 35-hour-per-week

schedule might be considered a full-time employee in one

establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm, where a

40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual

occupations is used to cover all workers in the civilian economy.

Individual occupations are classified into one of nine major

occupational groups. 4 The positional statistics for this occupation were

suppressed because some were below the minimum wage. In

this update survey, an average decrease in mean wages for this

occupation was applied to the positional statistics, causing the

10th percentile to go below the minimum wage.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data

did not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and

occupational levels may include data for categories not shown

separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this

update survey. A procedure was put into place to "move" the

positional statistics where averages were collected. This

procedure compares current locality survey data–at the quote

level–with the same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates

from the prior survey are moved by the average change in mean

wages for the occupation.

5
Table A-2. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, all workers2, private industry and State and local government,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation3

Private industry State and local government

Mean

Percentiles

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90 10 25 Median50 75 90

All occupations ..................................................... $9.41 $5.15 $5.41 $6.96 $10.16 $17.31 $13.91 $6.13 $7.43 $10.43 $19.72 $26.50

All occupations excluding sales .......................... 9.45 5.15 5.43 6.92 10.26 17.56 13.91 6.13 7.43 10.43 19.72 26.50

White-collar occupations ................................. 13.50 5.50 7.02 10.15 16.90 24.50 16.75 6.95 8.63 16.82 24.13 27.67

White-collar occupations excluding sales ....... 14.88 6.35 7.65 12.31 18.48 26.19 16.75 6.95 8.63 16.82 24.13 27.67

Professional specialty and technical

occupations .............................................. 17.13 9.59 13.20 15.78 19.92 27.35 20.73 11.17 14.36 20.89 26.17 29.28

Professional specialty occupations ............. 19.96 10.75 15.40 19.26 24.67 28.26 21.34 11.89 16.82 21.48 26.43 29.51

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ..... 24.49 15.33 18.89 25.55 28.26 32.19 – –––––

Mathematical and computer scientists ... – – – – – – – –––––

Health related occupations ..................... 20.65 15.07 16.91 19.33 23.23 27.79 – –––––

Registered nurses .............................. 19.33 15.28 17.02 18.71 20.60 24.00 – –––––

Teachers, college and university ............ – – – – – – – –––––

Teachers, except college and university – – – – – – 24.03 18.18 20.30 24.42 27.29 30.03

Elementary school teachers ............... – – – – – – 23.77 18.00 19.80 24.11 27.02 29.64

Secondary school teachers ................ – – – – – – 23.72 18.18 20.00 23.13 26.92 30.41

Librarians, archivists, and curators ......... – – – – – – – –––––

Social, recreation, and religious workers – – – – – – 12.62 10.51 11.07 12.27 14.36 14.82

Social workers .................................... – – – – – – 12.62 10.51 11.07 12.27 14.36 14.82

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes,

and professionals, N.E.C. ................. – – – – – – – –––––

Technical occupations ................................ 13.68 9.00 11.06 14.38 15.78 18.14 9.72 5.64 5.81 11.17 12.90 12.90

Licensed practical nurses ................... 14.08 10.72 12.69 14.54 15.06 16.62 – –––––

Executive, administrative, and managerial

occupations .............................................. 24.33 11.79 14.10 17.31 27.05 41.17 21.43 12.40 16.82 19.72 25.95 28.96

Executives, administrators, and

managers .......................................... 26.52 11.80 16.36 22.75 27.64 41.17 22.71 16.82 17.94 22.59 26.49 29.83

Administrators and officials, public

administration ............................... – – – – – – 22.14 11.98 17.50 19.72 26.97 37.36

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. 34.48 16.36 19.43 24.50 31.73 86.54 – –––––

Management related occupations .......... – – – – – – 16.55 12.04 12.40 18.60 18.60 19.30

Sales occupations .......................................... 8.99 5.15 5.26 7.76 9.40 12.40 – –––––

Sales workers, other commodities ...... 7.61 5.20 5.20 7.75 8.75 10.20 – –––––

Cashiers ............................................. 6.31 5.15 5.15 5.25 7.75 9.10 – –––––

Administrative support occupations, including

clerical ...................................................... 8.92 5.67 6.35 7.50 9.68 15.81 7.91 5.98 6.95 7.92 8.71 9.88

Secretaries ......................................... – – – – – – 8.60 7.77 7.92 8.41 9.06 10.19

Records clerks, N.E.C. ....................... 6.85 5.15 6.72 6.95 7.28 7.93 – –––––

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing

clerks ............................................ 6.93 5.50 6.00 6.50 7.50 9.14 – –––––

Stock and inventory clerks .................. 10.13 6.53 6.53 9.09 12.24 15.81 – –––––

General office clerks ........................... 8.16 6.60 6.60 8.13 8.52 10.43 7.79 6.02 6.67 7.85 8.78 9.32

Teachers’ aides .................................. – – – – – – 7.29 5.83 5.98 6.95 7.52 9.97

Blue-collar occupations ................................... 7.84 5.15 5.70 6.79 8.85 11.35 9.50 6.25 6.49 8.30 10.42 15.33

Precision production, craft, and repair

occupations .............................................. 11.26 6.00 7.92 10.93 12.01 21.07 12.23 7.73 10.16 10.81 13.52 18.48

Water and sewer treatment plant

operators ...................................... – – – – – – 8.03 5.61 6.38 8.89 9.33 9.47

Machine operators, assemblers, and

inspectors ................................................. 7.19 5.35 5.93 6.97 8.26 9.15 – –––––

Textile sewing machine operators ...... 7.41 5.65 5.93 7.51 8.85 9.27 – –––––

Miscellaneous machine operators,

N.E.C. ........................................... 7.30 5.35 6.07 7.35 8.23 8.80 – –––––

Transportation and material moving

occupations .............................................. 9.27 5.51 6.08 8.47 12.00 14.39 7.44 6.25 6.25 7.35 8.22 9.14

Truck drivers ....................................... 8.89 5.16 5.75 7.64 12.00 14.39 – –––––

Driver-sales workers ........................... 10.44 7.63 9.04 10.10 11.81 13.30 – –––––

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and

laborers ..................................................... 6.00 5.15 5.15 5.50 6.22 7.85 7.05 5.15 5.76 6.61 7.74 10.03

Stock handlers and baggers ............... 5.55 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4)––––––

Freight, stock, and material handlers,

N.E.C. ........................................... 7.85 5.25 5.54 8.65 9.01 10.65 – –––––

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. 6.38 5.15 5.15 5.15 7.78 9.29 6.83 5.60 5.94 6.68 7.29 8.30

See footnotes at end of table.

6
Table A-2. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, all workers2, private industry and State and local government,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

Occupation3

Private industry State and local government

Mean

Percentiles

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90 10 25 Median50 75 90

Service occupations ......................................... $5.60 $5.15 $5.15 $5.16 $6.06 $7.35 $8.12 $5.52 $6.22 $7.43 $9.62 $10.70

Protective service occupations ............... – – – – – – 10.74 7.84 8.27 10.04 10.99 15.86

Police and detectives, public service .. – – – – – – 12.24 9.83 9.96 10.58 15.58 16.16

Food service occupations ....................... 4.96 2.13 5.15 5.15 5.50 6.46 7.48 4.87 5.93 7.19 9.33 10.01

Waiters and waitresses ...................... 2.81 2.13 2.13 2.15 2.58 5.15 – –––––

Health service occupations ..................... 6.64 5.30 5.51 6.29 7.77 8.17 – –––––

Health aides, except nursing .............. 7.42 6.00 6.34 7.68 8.17 8.31 – –––––

Nursing aides, orderlies and

attendants ..................................... 6.21 5.30 5.30 5.71 6.68 8.00 – –––––

Cleaning and building service

occupations ...................................... 5.75 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) 6.68 5.52 5.99 6.54 7.08 8.21

Maids and housemen ......................... 5.63 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4)––––––

Janitors and cleaners ......................... 5.84 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) 6.66 5.52 5.99 6.54 7.05 8.21

Personal service occupations ................. 5.30 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.43 – –––––

Welfare service aides ......................... 5.18 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.35 – –––––

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They

include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium

pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is

computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers,

weighted by hours. The 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles designate position in

the earnings distribution. At the 50th percentile, the median, half of the workers receive

the same as or more than the rate shown, and half receive the same as or less than the

rate shown. At the 25th percentile, one-fourth of the workers earn the same as or less

than the rate shown. At the 75th percentile, one-fourth earn the same as or more than

the rate shown. The 10th and 90th percentiles follow the same logic. 2 All workers include full-time and part-time workers. Employees are classified as

working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition used by each

establishment. Therefore, a worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be

considered a full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in

another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual occupations is used to cover

all workers in the civilian economy. Individual occupations are classified into one of nine

major occupational groups. 4 The positional statistics for this occupation were suppressed because some were

below the minimum wage. In this update survey, an average decrease in mean wages

for this occupation was applied to the positional statistics, causing the 10th percentile to

go below the minimum wage.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication

criteria. Overall occupational groups and occupational levels may include data for

categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this update survey. A

procedure was put into place to "move" the positional statistics where averages were

collected. This procedure compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with

the same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior survey are moved by

the average change in mean wages for the occupation.

7
Table A-3. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, full-time and part-time workers2, all industries, Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation3

All industries

Full-time Part-time

Mean

Percentiles

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90 10 25 Median50 75 90

All occupations ..................................................... $11.84 $5.52 $6.53 $8.64 $15.02 $23.56 $5.69 $5.15 $5.15 $5.16 $5.50 $7.27

All occupations excluding sales .......................... 11.90 5.52 6.50 8.59 15.33 23.84 5.61 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.43 6.50

White-collar occupations ................................. 15.66 6.60 8.29 13.48 21.02 27.35 6.92 5.15 5.15 5.58 7.06 9.32

White-collar occupations excluding sales ....... 16.13 6.75 8.32 14.36 21.47 27.37 8.11 5.15 5.30 6.36 7.06 15.92

Professional specialty and technical

occupations .............................................. 19.47 11.07 14.18 18.75 25.18 28.39 13.91 6.25 6.36 15.25 20.00 24.00

Professional specialty occupations ............. 21.02 11.53 16.27 20.60 26.18 29.30 17.76 9.38 15.25 20.00 24.00 24.00

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ..... 24.49 15.33 18.89 25.55 28.26 32.19 – –––––

Mathematical and computer scientists ... – – – – – – – –––––

Health related occupations ..................... 20.57 15.05 16.99 19.23 23.23 27.79 – –––––

Registered nurses .............................. 19.19 15.40 17.02 18.60 20.35 22.35 – –––––

Teachers, college and university ............ – – – – – – – –––––

Teachers, except college and university 23.94 18.18 20.17 24.28 27.28 30.02 – –––––

Elementary school teachers ............... 23.77 18.00 19.80 24.11 27.02 29.64 – –––––

Secondary school teachers ................ 23.69 18.18 19.95 23.09 26.92 30.33 – –––––

Librarians, archivists, and curators ......... – – – – – – – –––––

Social, recreation, and religious workers 12.69 10.51 11.17 12.27 14.36 14.82 – –––––

Social workers .................................... 12.69 10.51 11.17 12.27 14.36 14.82 – –––––

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes,

and professionals, N.E.C. ................. – – – – – – – –––––

Technical occupations ................................ 13.20 8.48 10.64 13.94 15.58 18.14 – –––––

Licensed practical nurses ................... 13.97 10.79 12.03 14.12 15.06 16.62 – –––––

Health technologists and technicians,

N.E.C. ........................................... 11.56 5.64 5.81 12.03 14.38 18.14 – –––––

Executive, administrative, and managerial

occupations .............................................. 22.91 11.98 16.67 19.72 26.50 31.73 – –––––

Executives, administrators, and

managers .......................................... 24.70 13.50 16.82 22.62 27.05 37.36 – –––––

Administrators and officials, public

administration ............................... 22.14 11.98 17.50 19.72 26.97 37.36 – –––––

Managers, medicine and health ......... 25.06 11.80 14.10 21.02 41.17 41.17 – –––––

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. 33.37 16.36 19.43 23.45 31.73 86.54 – –––––

Management related occupations .......... 15.24 11.79 12.02 14.52 18.60 19.30 – –––––

Sales occupations .......................................... 10.52 5.47 7.12 8.83 10.95 15.68 6.20 5.15 5.15 5.25 7.13 8.44

Sales workers, other commodities ...... 7.61 5.20 5.20 8.00 8.97 10.20 – –––––

Cashiers ............................................. – – – – – – 5.48 5.15 5.15 5.15 5.25 7.25

Administrative support occupations, including

clerical ...................................................... 8.60 5.98 6.67 7.92 9.06 11.06 6.10 5.15 5.24 6.21 7.06 7.06

Secretaries ......................................... 8.83 7.77 8.07 8.58 9.32 10.19 – –––––

Records clerks, N.E.C. ....................... 6.91 5.96 6.20 6.97 7.20 7.85 – –––––

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing

clerks ............................................ 7.45 5.90 7.32 7.32 8.05 8.95 – –––––

Stock and inventory clerks .................. 9.43 6.53 6.53 8.29 10.02 15.81 – –––––

General office clerks ........................... 8.05 6.60 6.67 7.91 8.78 9.60 – –––––

Teachers’ aides .................................. 7.29 5.83 5.98 6.95 7.52 9.97 – –––––

Blue-collar occupations ................................... 8.16 5.22 5.93 7.11 9.27 11.66 6.37 5.15 5.33 5.65 7.63 9.01

Precision production, craft, and repair

occupations .............................................. 11.52 6.18 8.49 10.93 12.81 18.86 – –––––

Water and sewer treatment plant

operators ...................................... 8.03 5.61 6.38 8.89 9.33 9.47 – –––––

Machine operators, assemblers, and

inspectors ................................................. 7.24 5.35 6.03 6.97 8.41 9.20 – –––––

Textile sewing machine operators ...... 7.41 5.65 5.93 7.51 8.85 9.27 – –––––

Miscellaneous machine operators,

N.E.C. ........................................... 7.30 5.35 6.07 7.35 8.23 8.80 – –––––

Transportation and material moving

occupations .............................................. 8.69 5.75 6.25 7.70 10.92 13.75 – –––––

Truck drivers ....................................... 8.77 5.16 5.75 7.30 12.00 14.38 – –––––

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and

laborers ..................................................... 6.09 5.15 5.15 5.64 6.59 7.79 6.20 5.15 5.19 5.65 5.92 8.84

Helpers, construction trades ............... 6.03 5.15 5.78 6.00 6.25 6.39 – –––––

See footnotes at end of table.

8
Table A-3. Hourly earnings1 for selected occupations, full-time and part-time workers2, all industries, Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

Occupation3

All industries

Full-time Part-time

Mean

Percentiles

Mean

Percentiles

10 25 Median

50 75 90 10 25 Median50 75 90

Blue-collar occupations (-Continued)

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and

laborers (-Continued)

Stock handlers and baggers ............... $5.64 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) $5.39 $5.15 $5.15 $5.30 $5.65 $5.65

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. 6.28 $5.15 $5.15 $5.60 $7.04 $8.30 – –––––

Service occupations ......................................... 7.25 5.19 5.76 6.75 8.08 10.01 5.14 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.47

Protective service occupations ............... 10.13 7.03 7.84 9.86 10.70 15.64 – –––––

Police and detectives, public service .. 12.24 9.83 9.96 10.58 15.58 16.16 – –––––

Food service occupations ....................... 6.64 4.76 5.38 6.10 8.00 9.98 4.63 2.13 5.00 5.15 5.25 5.40

Waiters and waitresses ...................... 3.44 2.13 2.58 2.58 5.15 5.38 – –––––

Cooks ................................................. 6.44 5.48 5.75 6.18 6.85 7.75 – –––––

Health service occupations ..................... 6.78 5.30 5.66 6.97 7.63 8.17 – –––––

Health aides, except nursing .............. 7.53 6.10 7.35 7.43 8.14 8.19 – –––––

Nursing aides, orderlies and

attendants ..................................... 6.16 5.30 5.30 5.84 6.74 7.48 – –––––

Cleaning and building service

occupations ...................................... 6.37 5.15 5.52 6.10 6.87 8.12 5.45 (4) (4) (4) (4) (4)

Maids and housemen ......................... 5.74 5.15 5.15 5.61 6.06 6.56 – –––––

Janitors and cleaners ......................... 6.49 5.26 5.52 6.22 6.95 8.21 – –––––

Personal service occupations ................. 6.30 5.50 5.91 6.15 6.19 6.80 5.18 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.35

Welfare service aides ......................... – – – – – – 5.18 5.15 5.15 5.16 5.16 5.35

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They

include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium

pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is

computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers,

weighted by hours. The 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles designate position in

the earnings distribution. At the 50th percentile, the median, half of the workers receive

the same as or more than the rate shown, and half receive the same as or less than the

rate shown. At the 25th percentile, one-fourth of the workers earn the same as or less

than the rate shown. At the 75th percentile, one-fourth earn the same as or more than

the rate shown. The 10th and 90th percentiles follow the same logic. 2 Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based

on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a worker with a

35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time employee in one

establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm, where a 40-hour week is the

minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual occupations is used to cover

all workers in the civilian economy. Individual occupations are classified into one of nine

major occupational groups. 4 The positional statistics for this occupation were suppressed because some were

below the minimum wage. In this update survey, an average decrease in mean wages

for this occupation was applied to the positional statistics, causing the 10th percentile to

go below the minimum wage.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication

criteria. Overall occupational groups and occupational levels may include data for

categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this update survey. A

procedure was put into place to "move" the positional statistics where averages were

collected. This procedure compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with

the same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior survey are moved by

the average change in mean wages for the occupation.

9
Table A-4. Weekly and annual earnings1 and hours for selected occupations, full-time workers only2, all industries,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation3

All industries

Mean

weekly

hours4

Weekly earnings Mean

annual

hours

Annual earnings

Mean Median Mean Median

All occupations ....................................................................... 40.0 $473 $344 1,936 $22,914 $17,734

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 40.0 476 346 1,933 22,992 17,784

White-collar occupations ................................................... 39.7 621 538 1,846 28,902 26,333

White-collar occupations excluding sales ......................... 39.8 642 574 1,832 29,561 27,468

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 39.4 766 736 1,715 33,408 32,063

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 39.1 822 808 1,642 34,511 33,448

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ....................... 40.6 994 1,022 2,111 51,687 53,142

Mathematical and computer scientists ..................... ––––––

Health related occupations ....................................... 39.7 816 753 2,063 42,451 39,161

Registered nurses ................................................ 39.6 759 737 2,057 39,484 38,303

Teachers, college and university .............................. ––––––

Teachers, except college and university .................. 38.4 919 941 1,417 33,919 34,202

Elementary school teachers ................................. 38.2 908 929 1,404 33,372 34,279

Secondary school teachers .................................. 38.6 913 891 1,420 33,639 32,693

Librarians, archivists, and curators ........................... ––––––

Social, recreation, and religious workers .................. 40.0 508 491 2,080 26,404 25,522

Social workers ...................................................... 40.0 508 491 2,080 26,404 25,522

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes, and

professionals, N.E.C. .......................................... ––––––

Technical occupations .................................................. 40.4 533 558 2,097 27,687 28,987

Licensed practical nurses ..................................... 39.7 555 565 2,065 28,848 29,367

Health technologists and technicians, N.E.C. ....... 42.8 494 482 2,223 25,698 25,084

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 41.1 942 818 2,089 47,859 41,859

Executives, administrators, and managers ............... 41.0 1,014 912 2,078 51,319 43,442

Administrators and officials, public administration 40.0 886 789 2,080 46,053 41,018

Managers, medicine and health ........................... 40.0 1,002 841 2,080 52,116 43,722

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. .................. 42.3 1,410 1,073 2,198 73,340 55,816

Management related occupations ............................ 41.4 631 526 2,137 32,567 27,984

Sales occupations ............................................................ 38.6 406 316 2,008 21,121 16,421

Sales workers, other commodities ........................ 35.9 273 251 1,866 14,194 13,073

Administrative support occupations, including clerical ..... 39.7 341 314 1,888 16,233 14,819

Secretaries ........................................................... 40.0 353 343 1,860 16,429 17,243

Records clerks, N.E.C. ......................................... 40.0 276 279 2,030 14,020 14,040

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks ...... 39.6 295 293 1,918 14,292 13,931

Stock and inventory clerks .................................... 40.0 377 332 2,080 19,619 17,243

General office clerks ............................................. 39.8 320 316 2,071 16,666 16,449

Teachers’ aides .................................................... 38.6 281 269 1,427 10,408 9,963

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 40.4 330 286 2,087 17,035 14,789

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 39.8 459 437 2,072 23,869 22,734

Water and sewer treatment plant operators ......... 40.0 321 356 2,080 16,708 18,491

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 40.0 290 279 2,080 15,059 14,498

Textile sewing machine operators ........................ 40.0 297 300 2,080 15,421 15,621

Miscellaneous machine operators, N.E.C. ........... 40.0 292 294 2,080 15,181 15,292

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 44.7 388 342 2,181 18,955 16,994

Truck drivers ......................................................... 49.2 431 428 2,542 22,302 22,214

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ...... 39.6 241 226 2,059 12,546 11,733

Helpers, construction trades ................................. 40.0 241 240 2,080 12,539 12,480

Stock handlers and baggers ................................. 40.0 226 216 2,080 11,740 11,232

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. ................... 40.0 251 224 2,080 13,070 11,648

Service occupations ........................................................... 40.0 290 262 1,962 14,229 12,979

Protective service occupations ................................. 43.5 441 426 2,261 22,910 22,136

Police and detectives, public service .................... 41.0 502 437 2,134 26,119 22,704

Food service occupations ......................................... 38.2 254 240 1,635 10,862 10,712

Waiters and waitresses ........................................ 37.6 129 90 1,955 6,733 4,696

Cooks ................................................................... 37.7 243 238 1,708 10,996 10,606

See footnotes at end of table.

10
Table A-4. Weekly and annual earnings1 and hours for selected occupations, full-time workers only2, all industries,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

Occupation3

All industries

Mean

weekly

hours4

Weekly earnings Mean

annual

hours

Annual earnings

Mean Median Mean Median

Service occupations (-Continued)

Health service occupations ....................................... 39.5 $268 $275 2,055 $13,939 $14,310

Health aides, except nursing ................................ 39.5 297 297 2,055 15,466 15,454

Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants ............... 39.5 243 230 2,053 12,648 11,963

Cleaning and building service occupations .............. 39.8 254 244 2,068 13,171 12,692

Maids and housemen ........................................... 39.0 224 224 2,030 11,648 11,669

Janitors and cleaners ........................................... 40.0 259 249 2,077 13,468 12,937

Personal service occupations ................................... 40.0 252 246 2,080 13,110 12,792

1 Earnings are the straight-time wages or salaries paid to employees. They

include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are

premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. 

The mean is computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the

number of workers, weighted by hours. The median designates

position--one-half of the workers receive the same as or more, and one-half

receive the same as or less than the rate shown. 2 Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time

schedule based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a

worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time

employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm, where

a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual occupations is used

to cover all workers in the civilian economy. Individual occupations are classified

into one of nine major occupational groups. 

4 Mean weekly hours are the hours an employee is scheduled to work in a

week, exclusive of overtime.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet

publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and occupational levels may

include data for categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere

classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this update survey. 

A procedure was put into place to "move" the positional statistics where averages

were collected. This procedure compares current locality survey data–at the

quote level–with the same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the

prior survey are moved by the average change in mean wages for the

occupation.

11
Table B-1. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and levels2, all industries, private industry,

State and local government, full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX,

June 1998

Occupational group3 and level

All workers 4 All industries

All industriesPrivate

industry

State and

local

government

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

All occupations ....................................................................... $10.95 $9.41 $13.91 $11.84 $5.69

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 11.07 9.45 13.91 11.90 5.61

White-collar occupations ................................................... 15.05 13.50 16.75 15.66 6.92

Level 1 .............................................................. 6.43 6.40 – 7.04 5.58

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.93 6.58 7.14 7.03 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.64 7.43 8.00 7.82 6.77

Level 4 .............................................................. 8.90 8.98 8.73 9.12 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 12.51 13.22 – 12.58 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 16.51 12.88 18.39 16.54 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 18.16 16.89 19.62 18.14 –

Level 8 .............................................................. 17.64 14.77 18.85 17.59 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 22.33 20.29 23.02 22.33 –

Level 10 ............................................................ 24.78 25.27 – 24.78 –

Level 11 ............................................................ 27.63 27.89 – 27.63 –

Level 12 ............................................................ 27.83 – – 27.83 –

White-collar occupations excluding sales ......................... 15.89 14.88 16.75 16.13 8.11

Level 1 .............................................................. 6.84 6.99 – 7.14 –

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.92 6.48 7.14 6.96 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.56 7.15 8.00 7.66 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 8.92 9.04 8.73 9.19 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 12.14 12.82 – 12.22 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 17.01 13.68 18.39 17.05 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 18.20 16.94 19.62 18.17 –

Level 8 .............................................................. 17.79 15.11 18.85 17.75 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 22.27 19.94 23.02 22.27 –

Level 10 ............................................................ 24.71 – – 24.71 –

Level 11 ............................................................ 26.81 26.55 – 26.81 –

Level 12 ............................................................ 27.83 – – 27.83 –

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 19.38 17.13 20.73 19.47 13.91

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 20.98 19.96 21.34 21.02 17.76

Level 5 .............................................................. 10.54 ––––

Level 6 .............................................................. 18.99 – – 19.07 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 18.97 16.97 20.05 18.93 –

Level 8 .............................................................. 19.79 – 20.35 19.77 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 23.51 21.30 23.83 23.52 –

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ....................... 24.49 24.49 – 24.49 –

Mathematical and computer scientists ..................... –––––

Health related occupations ....................................... 20.58 20.65 – 20.57 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 20.09 ––––

Teachers, college and university .............................. –––––

Teachers, except college and university .................. 23.87 – 24.03 23.94 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 25.17 – 25.17 25.17 –

Level 8 .............................................................. 22.98 – 22.98 22.98 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 24.39 – 24.39 24.39 –

Librarians, archivists, and curators ........................... –––––

Social, religious, and recreation workers .................. 12.69 – 12.62 12.69 –

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes, and

professionals, N.E.C. .......................................... –––––

Technical occupations .................................................. 13.05 13.68 9.72 13.20 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 9.19 – – 9.48 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 13.70 13.70 – 13.84 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 14.18 14.90 – 14.18 –

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 22.91 24.33 21.43 22.91 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 14.65 – – 14.65 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 18.86 19.16 18.48 18.86 –

Executives, administrators, and managers ............... 24.70 26.52 22.71 24.70 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 19.08 19.69 – 19.08 –

Management related occupations ............................ 15.24 – 16.55 15.24 –

Sales occupations ............................................................ 8.99 8.99 – 10.52 6.20

Level 1 .............................................................. 6.29 6.29 – 6.98 5.62

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.86 7.86 – 8.67 7.00

Administrative support occupations, including clerical ..... 8.45 8.92 7.91 8.60 6.10

Level 1 .............................................................. 6.84 6.99 – 7.14 –

See footnotes at end of table.

12
Table B-1. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and levels2, all industries, private industry,

State and local government, full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX,

June 1998 — Continued

Occupational group3 and level

All workers 4 All industries

All industriesPrivate

industry

State and

local

government

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

White-collar occupations (-Continued)

Administrative support occupations, including clerical 

(-Continued)

Level 2 .............................................................. $6.87 $6.32 $7.14 $6.92 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.56 7.13 8.00 7.66 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 8.86 8.68 9.16 9.12 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 19.59 – – 19.59 –

Blue-collar occupations ......................................................... 8.05 7.84 9.50 8.16 $6.37

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.63 5.57 6.55 5.67 5.41

Level 2 .............................................................. 7.30 7.28 7.53 7.31 7.24

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.15 7.20 6.72 7.21 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 8.88 9.03 – 8.93 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 9.73 9.70 – 9.73 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 12.10 – – 12.10 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 12.55 13.21 – 12.55 –

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 11.52 11.26 12.23 11.52 –

Level 3 .............................................................. – – 7.62 – –

Level 5 .............................................................. 9.94 9.94 – 9.94 –

Level 7 .............................................................. 12.45 13.10 – 12.45 –

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 7.19 7.19 – 7.24 –

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.84 5.84 – 5.92 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 6.98 6.98 – 6.98 –

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 8.68 9.27 7.44 8.69 –

Level 2 .............................................................. 7.06 – – 7.06 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 10.76 ––––

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ..... 6.11 6.00 7.05 6.09 6.20

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.50 5.38 6.60 5.51 5.41

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.56 6.58 – 6.45 7.24

Level 3 .............................................................. 6.44 6.35 – 6.65 –

Service occupations ........................................................... 6.44 5.60 8.12 7.25 5.14

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.45 5.22 6.09 5.87 5.12

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.12 5.92 – 6.84 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 6.47 5.71 7.63 6.71 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 7.24 6.37 8.97 7.36 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 9.80 – – 9.80 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 10.16 – – 10.06 –

Protective service occupations ............................... 9.90 – 10.74 10.13 –

Level 6 .............................................................. 10.17 ––––

Food service occupations ........................................ 5.75 4.96 7.48 6.64 4.63

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.27 5.07 – 5.62 –

Level 2 .............................................................. 5.07 3.82 – 7.20 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 5.46 – – 5.70 –

See footnotes at end of table.

13
Table B-1. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and levels2, all industries, private industry,

State and local government, full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX,

June 1998 — Continued

Occupational group3 and level

All workers 4 All industries

All industriesPrivate

industry

State and

local

government

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

Service occupations (-Continued)

Health service occupations ..................................... $6.83 $6.64 – $6.78 –

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.84 6.78 – 6.87 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 6.77 – – 6.56 –

Cleaning and building service occupations ............ 6.24 5.75 $6.68 6.37 $5.45

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.88 5.54 6.25 6.01 –

Personal service occupations ................................. 5.36 5.30 – 6.30 5.18

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to

employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments,

and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations,

holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed

by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of

workers, weighted by hours. 2 Each occupation for which wage data are collected in an

establishment is evaluated based on 10 factors, including knowledge,

complexity, work environment, etc. Points are assigned based on the

occupation’s ranking within each factor. The points are summed to

determine the overall level of the occupation. See technical note for

more information. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual

occupations is used to cover all workers in the civilian economy.

Individual occupations are classified into one of nine major

occupational groups. 4 All workers include full-time and part-time workers. Employees

are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule

based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a

worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a

full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in

another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time

schedule.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did

not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and

occupational levels may include data for categories not shown

separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this

update survey. A procedure was put into place to "move" the

positional statistics where averages were collected. This procedure

compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with the

same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior

survey are moved by the average change in mean wages for the

occupation.

14
Table B-2. Mean hourly earnings1 for selected occupations and levels2, all industries, private

industry, State and local government, full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation3 and level

All workers4 All industries

All industriesPrivate

industry

State and

local

government

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

White-collar occupations:

Professional specialty and technical occupations:

Professional specialty occupations:

Registered nurses ................................................ $19.29 $19.33 – $19.19 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 20.09 ––––

Elementary school teachers ................................. 23.77 – $23.77 23.77 –

Level 8 .............................................................. 22.33 – 22.33 22.33 –

Secondary school teachers .................................. 23.69 – 23.72 23.69 –

Social workers ...................................................... 12.69 – 12.62 12.69 –

Technical occupations:

Licensed practical nurses ..................................... 13.93 14.08 – 13.97 –

Level 5 .............................................................. 14.14 14.14 – 14.22 –

Health technologists and technicians, N.E.C. ....... 11.43 – – 11.56 –

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations:

Administrators and officials, public administration 22.14 – 22.14 22.14 –

Managers, medicine and health ........................... 25.06 – – 25.06 –

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. .................. 33.37 34.48 – 33.37 –

Level 9 .............................................................. 20.97 20.97 – 20.97 –

Sales occupations:

Sales workers, other commodities ........................ 7.61 7.61 – 7.61 –

Cashiers ............................................................... 6.31 6.31 – – $5.48

Level 1 .............................................................. 6.19 6.19 – – 5.57

Administrative support occupations, including clerical:

Secretaries ........................................................... 8.83 – 8.60 8.83 –

Records clerks, N.E.C. ......................................... 6.76 6.85 – 6.91 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 6.73 – – 6.92 –

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks ...... 7.43 6.93 – 7.45 –

Stock and inventory clerks .................................... 9.43 10.13 – 9.43 –

General office clerks ............................................. 7.95 8.16 7.79 8.05 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 7.69 7.87 – 7.69 –

Level 4 .............................................................. 8.69 – – 8.69 –

Teachers’ aides .................................................... 7.29 – 7.29 7.29 –

Blue-collar occupations:

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations:

Water and sewer treatment plant operators ......... 8.03 – 8.03 8.03 –

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors:

Textile sewing machine operators ........................ 7.41 7.41 – 7.41 –

Miscellaneous machine operators, N.E.C. ........... 7.30 7.30 – 7.30 –

Level 3 .............................................................. 8.05 8.05 – 8.05 –

Transportation and material moving occupations:

Truck drivers ......................................................... 8.81 8.89 – 8.77 –

Driver-sales workers ............................................. 10.44 10.44 – – –

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers:

Helpers, construction trades ................................. 6.03 – – 6.03 –

Stock handlers and baggers ................................. 5.55 5.55 – 5.64 5.39

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.37 5.37 – 5.34 5.42

Freight, stock, and material handlers, N.E.C. ....... 7.85 7.85 – – –

Level 2 .............................................................. 7.87 7.87 – – –

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. ................... 6.53 6.38 6.83 6.28 –

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.75 – – 5.75 –

Service occupations:

Protective service occupations:

Police and detectives, public service .................... 12.24 – 12.24 12.24 –

Food service occupations:

Waiters and waitresses ........................................ 2.81 2.81 – 3.44 –

Level 1 .............................................................. 3.06 3.06 – – –

Cooks ................................................................... 5.85 – – 6.44 –

Kitchen workers, food preparation ........................ 5.77 ––––

Health service occupations:

Health aides, except nursing ................................ 7.50 7.42 – 7.53 –

Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants ............... 6.33 6.21 – 6.16 –

Level 2 .............................................................. 6.27 6.05 – 6.28 –

See footnotes at end of table.

15
Table B-2. Mean hourly earnings1 for selected occupations and levels2, all industries, private

industry, State and local government, full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San

Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

Occupation3 and level

All workers4 All industries

All industriesPrivate

industry

State and

local

government

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

Service occupations: (-Continued)

Cleaning and building service occupations:

Maids and housemen ........................................... $5.63 $5.63 – $5.74 –

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.66 5.66 – – –

Janitors and cleaners ........................................... 6.37 5.84 $6.66 6.49 –

Level 1 .............................................................. 5.96 5.41 6.25 6.07 –

Personal service occupations:

Welfare service aides ........................................... 5.24 5.18 – – $5.18

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to

employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments,

and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations,

holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed

by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of

workers, weighted by hours. 2 Each occupation for which wage data are collected in an

establishment is evaluated based on 10 factors, including knowledge,

complexity, work environment, etc. Points are assigned based on the

occupation’s ranking within each factor. The points are summed to

determine the overall level of the occupation. See technical note for

more information. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual

occupations is used to cover all workers in the civilian economy.

Individual occupations are classified into one of nine major

occupational groups. 4 All workers include full-time and part-time workers. Employees

are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule

based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a

worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a

full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in

another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time

schedule.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did

not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and

occupational levels may include data for categories not shown

separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this

update survey. A procedure was put into place to "move" the

positional statistics where averages were collected. This procedure

compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with the

same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior

survey are moved by the average change in mean wages for the

occupation.

16
Table C-1. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and selected characteristics, all industries,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupational group2 Full-time

workers3

Part-time

workers3 Union4 Nonunion4 Time5 Incentive5

All occupations ....................................................................... $11.84 $5.69 $13.51 $10.85 $11.22 $8.38

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 11.90 5.61 13.51 10.97 11.36 8.20

White-collar occupations ................................................... 15.66 6.92 20.06 14.88 15.09 12.48

White-collar excluding sales ............................................. 16.13 8.11 20.06 15.74 15.87 –

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 19.47 13.91 – 19.10 19.38 –

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 21.02 17.76 – 20.69 20.98 –

Technical occupations .................................................. 13.20 – – 13.05 13.05 –

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 22.91 – – 22.91 22.91 –

Sales occupations ............................................................ 10.52 6.20 – 8.99 8.77 –

Administrative support including clerical occupations ...... 8.60 6.10 14.53 8.09 8.45 –

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 8.16 6.37 9.42 7.93 8.08 7.98

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 11.52 – – 11.42 11.52 –

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 7.24 – – 7.15 6.79 7.50

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 8.69 – – 8.57 7.71 9.80

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ..... 6.09 6.20 – 6.11 6.07 –

Service occupations ........................................................... 7.25 5.14 – 6.44 6.44 –

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to

employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and

hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays,

nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed by totaling the pay

of all workers and dividing by the number of workers, weighted by hours. 2 A classification system including about 480 individual occupations is

used to cover all workers in the civilian economy. Individual occupations are

classified into one of nine major occupational groups. 3 Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time

schedule based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a

worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time

employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm,

where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule. 4 Union workers are those whose wages are determined through

collective bargaining. 5 Time workers’ wages are based solely on an hourly rate or salary;

incentive workers are those whose wages are at least partially based on

productivity payments such as piece rates, commissions, and production

bonuses.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet

publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and occupational levels may

include data for categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not

elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this update

survey. A procedure was put into place to "move" the positional statistics

where averages were collected. This procedure compares current locality

survey data–at the quote level–with the same quote from the prior survey. 

Individual rates from the prior survey are moved by the average change in

mean wages for the occupation.

17
Table C-2. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and industry division, private industry, all workers2,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupational group3 All private

industries

Goods-producing industries4 Service-producing industries5

Total Mining

ConstructionManufacturing

Total

Transportation

and

public

utilities

Wholesale

and

retail

trade

Finance,

insurance,

and

real

estate

Services

All occupations ........................................................................... $9.41 $9.60 – – $9.66 $9.32 $13.57 $6.97 – $9.28

All occupations excluding sales ................................................ 9.45 9.30 – – 9.35 9.54 13.57 6.51 – 9.30

White-collar occupations ....................................................... 13.50 15.81 – – 15.81 12.89 15.65 8.62 – 13.85

White-collar excluding sales ................................................. 14.88 15.00 – – 15.00 14.84 15.65 14.51 – 13.99

Professional specialty and technical occupations ................ 17.13 19.82 – – 19.82 16.53 – – – 16.65

Professional specialty occupations ................................... 19.96 22.10 – – 22.10 19.20 – – – 19.69

Technical occupations ...................................................... 13.68 – – – – 13.90 – – – 14.08

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ....... 24.33 23.69 – – 23.69 24.61 – – – 21.04

Sales occupations ................................................................ 8.99 24.81 – – 24.81 7.73 – 7.71 – –

Administrative support, including clerical occupations ......... 8.92 8.38 – – 8.38 9.13 – 8.39 – 8.15

Blue-collar occupations ......................................................... 7.84 7.76 – – 7.67 8.04 12.45 6.27 – 6.77

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .............. 11.26 9.97 – – 10.19 16.02 ––––

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .................. 7.19 7.29 – – 7.29 –––––

Transportation and material moving occupations ................. 9.27 10.81 – – 10.81 8.91 ––––

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ......... 6.00 6.02 – – 5.98 5.99 – 6.12 – 5.69

Service occupations ............................................................... 5.60 – – – – 5.60 – 5.10 – 5.77

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They

include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium

pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is

computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers,

weighted by hours. 2 All workers include full-time and part-time workers. Employees are classified as

working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition used by each

establishment. Therefore, a worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be

considered a full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in

another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual occupations is used to cover

all workers in the civilian economy. Individual occupations are classified into one of nine

major occupational groups. 

4 Goods-producing industries include mining, construction, and manufacturing. 5 Service-producing industries include transportation and public utilities; wholesale

and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication

criteria. Overall occupational groups and occupational levels may include data for

categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this update survey. A

procedure was put into place to "move" the positional statistics where averages were

collected. This procedure compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with

the same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior survey are moved by

the average change in mean wages for the occupation.

18
Table C-3. Mean hourly earnings1 by occupational group and establishment employment size, private

industry, all workers2, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupational group3

All private

industry

workers

50 - 99

workers

100 workers or more

Total 100 - 499

workers

500

workers or

more

All occupations ....................................................................... $9.41 $9.26 $9.48 $9.71 $9.20

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 9.45 9.47 9.44 9.68 9.20

White-collar occupations ................................................... 13.50 12.43 14.05 13.80 14.40

White-collar excluding sales ............................................. 14.88 14.47 15.06 15.79 14.40

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 17.13 17.67 16.96 17.38 16.76

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 19.96 20.42 19.80 20.25 19.56

Technical occupations .................................................. 13.68 13.50 13.73 13.61 13.78

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 24.33 22.91 24.90 24.18 –

Sales occupations ............................................................ 8.99 7.85 9.90 9.90 –

Administrative support, including clerical occupations ..... 8.92 9.86 8.37 8.18 8.55

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 7.84 7.90 7.82 8.03 7.59

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 11.26 – 11.78 12.25 11.12

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 7.19 6.67 7.24 7.45 7.11

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 9.27 9.90 – – –

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ..... 6.00 5.88 6.08 5.94 6.44

Service occupations ........................................................... 5.60 5.67 5.58 5.72 5.44

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to

employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments,

and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations,

holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed

by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of

workers, weighted by hours. 2 All workers include full-time and part-time workers. Employees

are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule

based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a

worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a

full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in

another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time

schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480 individual

occupations is used to cover all workers in the civilian economy.

Individual occupations are classified into one of nine major

occupational groups. 

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did

not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups and

occupational levels may include data for categories not shown

separately. N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in this

update survey. A procedure was put into place to "move" the

positional statistics where averages were collected. This procedure

compares current locality survey data–at the quote level–with the

same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates from the prior

survey are moved by the average change in mean wages for the

occupation.

19
Table C-4. Number of workers1 represented by occupational group,

Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupational group2

All workers

All industries Private

industry

State and

local government

All occupations ....................................................................... 51,281 33,259 18,022

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 48,204 30,182 18,022

White-collar occupations ................................................... 24,074 11,777 12,297

White-collar excluding sales ............................................. 20,997 8,700 12,297

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 10,336 3,378 6,958

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 8,567 1,859 6,707

Technical occupations .................................................. 1,770 1,519 251

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 3,000 1,458 1,542

Sales occupations ............................................................ 3,077 3,077 –

Administrative support including clerical occupations ...... 7,661 3,864 3,797

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 13,009 11,188 1,822

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 2,660 1,955 705

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 5,113 5,113 –

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 1,788 1,001 787

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ..... 3,448 3,119 329

Service occupations ........................................................... 14,198 10,295 3,903

1 Both full-time and part-time workers were included in

the survey. Employees are classified as working either a

full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition

used by each establishment. Therefore, a worker with a

35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time

employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time

in another establishment, where a 40-hour week is the

minimum full-time schedule. 2 A classification system including about 480 individual

occupations is used to cover all workers in the civilian

economy. Individual occupations are classified into one of

nine major occupational groups. 

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that

data did not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational

groups and occupational levels may include data for

categories not shown separately. N.E.C. means "not

elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were collected in

this update survey. A procedure was put into place to

"move" the positional statistics where averages were

collected. This procedure compares current locality survey

data–at the quote level–with the same quote from the prior

survey. Individual rates from the prior survey are moved by

the average change in mean wages for the occupation.

20
21

Appendix A. Technical Note

This section provides basic information on the procedures and concepts used to produce the data contained in

this bulletin. It is divided into three parts: Planning for the

survey; data collection; and processing and analyzing the

data. While this section answers some questions commonly

asked by data users, it is not a comprehensive description

of all the steps required to produce the data.

Planning for the survey

The overall design of the survey is based on the type of

data to be produced. Establishments that participate in the

NCS are studied for several collection cycles. This allows

changes in wages within these establishments to be observed over time. Individual wage data are collected for

selected jobs during each establishment’s initial cycle and

updated during subsequent cycles. When data are not

available during a collection cycle, efforts are made to collect the data during subsequent cycles and include it in later

tabulations. Beginning in the year 2001, the current NCS

sample will be replenished on a rotating basis.

Survey scope

This survey of the Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,

TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area covered establishments

employing 50 workers or more in goods-producing industries (mining, construction and manufacturing); serviceproducing industries (transportation, communications,

electric, gas, and sanitary services; wholesale trade; retail

trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services industries); and State and local governments. Agriculture,

private households, and the Federal Government were excluded from the scope of the survey. For purposes of this

survey an establishment was an economic unit which produces goods or services, a central administrative office, or

an auxiliary unit providing support services to a company.

For private industries in this survey, the establishment was

usually at a single physical location. For State and local

governments, an establishment was defined as all locations

of a government entity.

The Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX, MSA includes Cameron County.

Sampling frame

The list of establishments from which the survey sample

was selected (sampling frame) was developed from the

State unemployment insurance reports for the BrownsvilleHarlingen-San Benito, TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The reference month for the public sector is June 1994.

Due to the volatility of industries within the private sector,

sampling frames were developed using the most recent

month of reference available at the time the sample was

selected. The reference month for the private sector is

March 1995. The sampling frame was reviewed prior to

the survey and, when necessary, missing establishments

were added, out-of-business and out-of-scope establishments were removed, and addresses, employment levels,

industry classification, and other information were updated.

Sample design

 The sample for this survey area was selected using a two

stage stratified design with probability proportional to employment sampling at each stage. The first stage of sample

selection was a probability sample of establishments. The

sample of establishments was drawn by first stratifying the

sampling frame where the strata are determined by industry

and whether the establishment is Private, State government

or local government. The number of sample establishments

allocated to each stratum is approximately proportional to

the stratum employment. Each sampled establishment is

selected within a stratum with a probability proportional to

its employment. Use of this technique means that the larger

an establishment’s employment, the greater its chance of

selection. Weights were applied to each establishment

when the data were tabulated so that the sample units

within each stratum represent all the units within the stratum, both sampled and nonsampled. See appendix table 1

for a count of establishments in the survey by employment

size. The second stage of sample selection, detailed below,

was a probability sample of occupations within a sampled

establishment.

Data collection

Detailed procedures are followed when collecting data

from survey respondents. For the initial data collection,

field economists, working out of the Regional Office, visited each establishment surveyed. The field economists -

through mail, phone, or personal visit - completed update

collection, which involved obtaining current pay data.

The following procedures are used for schedules initiated for the first time or reinitiated during an update.

Occupational selection and classification

Identification of the occupations for which wage data

were to be collected was a multi-step process:

1. Probability-proportional-to-size selection of establishment jobs.
22

2. Classification of jobs into occupations based on the

Census of Population system.

3. Characterization of jobs as full-time v. part-time,

union v. nonunion, and time v. incentive.

4. Determination of the level of work of each job.

For each occupation, wage data were collected for those

workers who met all the criteria identified in the last three

steps. Special procedures were developed for jobs for

which a correct classification or level could not be determined.

In step one, the jobs to be sampled were selected at each

establishment by the BLS field economist during a personal

visit. A complete list of employees was used for sampling,

with each selected worker representing a job within the establishment.

As with the selection of establishments, the selection of

a job was based on probability proportional to its size in

the establishment. The greater the number of people

working in a job in the establishment, the greater its chance

of selection.

The number of jobs collected in each establishment was

based on an establishment’s employment size as shown in

the following schedule:

Number of employees Number of selected jobs

50-99 8

100-249 10

250-999 12

1000-2,499 16

2,500+ 20

The second step of the process entailed classifying the

selected jobs into occupations based on their duties. The

National Compensation Survey occupational classification

system is based on the 1990 Census of Population. A selected job may fall into any one of about 480 occupational

classifications, from accountant to wood lathe operator. In

cases where a job’s duties overlapped two or more census

classification codes, the duties used to set the wage level

were used to classify the job. Classification by primary

duties was the fallback.

Each occupational classification is an element of a

broader classification known as a major occupational group

(MOG). Occupations can fall into any of the following

MOG’s:

· Professional specialty and technical

· Executive, administrative, and managerial

· Sales

· Administrative support including clerical

· Precision production, craft, and repair

· Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors

· Transportation and material moving

· Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers

· Service occupations

A complete list of all individual occupations, classified

by the MOG to which they belong, is contained in appendix

B.

In step three, certain other job characteristics of the

chosen worker were identified. First, the worker was identified as holding either a full-time or part-time job, based

on the establishment’s definition of those terms. Then the

worker was classified as having a time versus incentive job,

depending on whether any part of pay was directly based

on the actual production of the worker, rather than solely

on hours worked. Finally, the worker was identified as

being in a union job or a nonunion job. See the “Definition

of Terms” section on the following page for more detail.

Generic leveling through point factor analysis

In the last step before wage data were collected, the

work level of each selected job was determined using a

“generic leveling” process. Generic leveling ranks and

compares all occupations randomly selected in an establishment using the same criteria. This is a major departure

from the method used in the past in the Bureau’s Occupational Compensation Surveys which studied specifically defined occupations with leveling definitions unique to each

occupation.

For this survey, the level of each occupation in an establishment was determined by an analysis of each of 10

leveling factors. Nine of these factors are drawn from the

U.S. Government Office of Personnel Management’s Factor Evaluation System, which is the underlying structure for

evaluation of General Schedule Federal employees. The

tenth factor, supervisory duties, attempts to account for the

effect of supervisory duties. It is considered experimental.

The 10 factors are:

· Knowledge

· Supervision received

· Guidelines

· Complexity

· Scope and effect

· Personal contacts

· Purpose of contacts

· Physical demands

· Work environment

· Supervisory duties

Each factor contains a number of levels and each level

has an associated written description and point value. The

number and range of points differ among the factors. For

each factor, an occupation was assigned a level based on

which written description best matched the job. Within

each occupation, the points for 9 factors (supervisory duties

was excluded) were recorded and totaled. The total determines the overall level of the occupation. Appendix table 3

presents average work levels for published occupational

groups and selected occupations. A description of the levels for each factor is shown in appendix C.

Tabulations of levels of work for occupations in the

survey follow the Federal Government’s white-collar Gen-
23

eral Schedule. Point ranges for each of the 15 levels are

shown in appendix D. It also includes an example of a leveled job and a guide to help data users evaluate jobs in their

firm.

Wage data collected in prior surveys using the new generic leveling method were evaluated by BLS researchers

using regression techniques. For each of the major occupational groups, wages were compared to the 10 generic

level factors (and levels within those factors). The analysis

showed that several of the generic level factors, most notably knowledge and supervision received, had strong explanatory power for wages. That is, as the levels within a

given factor increased, the wages also increased. Detailed

research continues in the area. The results of this research

will be published by BLS in the future.

Collection period

The survey was collected from April 1998 through

August 1998. The average payroll reference month was

June 1998. For each establishment in the survey, the data

reflect the establishment’s practices on the day of collection.

Earnings

Earnings were defined as regular payments from the

employer to the employee as compensation for straighttime hourly work, or for any salaried work performed. The

following components were included as part of earnings:

· Incentive pay, including commissions, production

bonuses, and piece rates

· Cost-of-living allowances

· Hazard pay

· Payments of income deferred due to participation

in a salary reduction plan

· Deadhead pay, defined as pay given to transportation workers returning in a vehicle without freight

or passengers

The following forms of payments were not considered

part of straight-time earnings:

· Shift differentials, defined as extra payment for

working a schedule that varies from the norm, such

as night or weekend work

· Premium pay for overtime, holidays, and weekends

· Bonuses not directly tied to production (e.g.,

Christmas bonuses, profit-sharing bonuses)

· Uniform and tool allowances

· Free room and board

· Payments made by third parties (e.g., tips, bonuses

given by manufacturers to department store salespeople, referral incentives in real estate)

· On-call pay

In order to calculate earnings for various time periods

(hourly, weekly, and annual), data on work schedules were

also collected. For hourly workers, scheduled hours

worked per day and per week, exclusive of overtime, were

recorded. Annual weeks worked were determined. Because

salaried workers, exempt from overtime provisions, often

work beyond the assigned work schedule, their typical

number of hours actually worked was collected.

Definition of terms

Full-time worker. Any employee that the employer considers to be full time.

Incentive worker. Any employee whose earnings are tied,

at least in part, to commissions, piece rates, production bonuses, or other incentives based on production or sales.

Level. A ranking of an occupation based on the requirements of the position. (See the description in the technical

note and the example for more details on the leveling process.)

Nonunion worker. An employee in an occupation not

meeting the conditions for union coverage (see below).

Part-time worker. Any employee that the employer considers to be part-time.

Straight-time. Time worked at the standard rate of pay for

the job.

Time-based worker. Any employee whose earnings are

tied to an hourly rate or salary, and not to a specific level of

production.

Union worker. Any employee is in a union occupation

when all of the following conditions are met:

· A labor organization is recognized as the bargaining

agent for all workers in the occupation.

· Wage and salary rates are determined through collective bargaining or negotiations.

· Settlement terms, which must include earnings provisions and may include benefit provisions, are embodied in a signed mutually binding collective bargaining

agreement.

 Processing and analyzing the data

Data were processed and analyzed at the Bureau’s National Office following collection.

Weighting and nonresponse

Sample weights were calculated for each establishment/occupation in the survey. These weights reflected the

relative size of the occupation within the establishment and
24

of the establishment within the sample universe. Weights

were used to aggregate the individual establishment/occupations into the various data series. Of the establishments surveyed, 13.1 percent (representing 6,839

employees) refused to supply information. If data were not

provided by a sample member, the weights of responding

sample members in the same or similar “cells” were adjusted to account for the missing data. This technique assumes that the mean value of the nonrespondents equals the

mean value of the respondents at some detailed “cell” level.

Responding and nonresponding establishments were classified into these cells according to industry and employment

size. Responding and nonresponding occupations within responding establishments were classified into cells which

were additionally defined by major occupation group and

job level.

Establishments which were determined to be out of

business or outside the scope of the survey (3.1 percent of

the total sample) had their weights changed to zero. If only

partial data were given by a sample establishment or occupation, or data were missing, the response was treated as a

refusal.

Estimation

The wage series in the tables are computed by combining the wages for individual establishment/occupations.

Before being combined, individual wage rates are weighted

by: number of workers; the sample weight adjusted for nonresponding establishments and other factors; and the occupation work schedule, varying depending on whether

hourly, weekly, or annual rates are being calculated. The

respondent has the option of giving mean data instead of

individual wages in the years following the initiation.

In 1998, the publication criteria were changed to allow

more data to publish. Not all series that were calculated

met the criteria for publication. Before any series was

published, it was reviewed to make sure that the number of

observations underlying it was sufficient. This review prevented publishing a series that could have revealed information about a specific establishment.

As a result of the use of sampling weights, the number

of workers estimates represent the total in all establishments within the scope of the study not the actual number

of workers surveyed.

Data reliability

The data in this bulletin are estimates from a scientifically selected probability sample. There are two types of

errors possible in an estimate based on a sample survey,

sampling and nonsampling.

Sampling errors occur because observations come only

from a sample and not from an entire population. The

sample used for this survey is one of a number of possible

samples of the same size that could have been selected using the sample design. Estimates derived from the different

samples would differ from each other.

A measure of the variation among these differing estimates is called the standard error or sampling error. It indicates the precision with which an estimate from a particular sample approximates the average result of all

possible samples. The relative standard error (RSE) is the

standard error divided by the estimate. Appendix table 2

contains RSE data for selected series in this bulletin. RSE

data for all series in this bulletin are available on the Internet web site and by request to the BLS National Office.

The standard error can be used to calculate a “confidence interval” around a sample estimate. As an example,

suppose table A-1 shows that mean hourly earnings for all

workers was $12.79 per hour, and appendix table 2 shows a

relative standard error of 3.6 percent for this estimate. At

the 90-percent level, the confidence interval for this estimate is $13.55 to $12.03 ($12.79 plus and minus 1.645

times 3.6 percent times $12.79). If all possible samples

were selected to estimate the population value, the interval

from each sample would include the true population value

approximately 90 percent of the time.

 Nonsampling errors also affect survey results. They can

stem from many sources, such as inability to obtain information for some establishments, difficulties with survey

definitions, inability of the respondents to provide correct

information, or mistakes in recording or coding the data

obtained. A Technical Reinterview Program done in all

survey areas will be used in the development of a formal

quality assessment process to help compute nonsampling

error. Although they also were not specifically measured,

efforts were made to minimize nonsampling errors by the

extensive training of field economists who gathered survey

data, computer editing of the data, and detailed data review.
Appendix table 1. Number of establishments studied by industry division and establishment employment size,

and number of establishments represented, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Industry

Number of

establishments represented

Number of establishments studied

Total studied 50 - 99

workers

100 workers or more

Total 100 - 499

workers

500 workers

or more

All industries ......................................................... 278 108 42 66 48 18

Private industry ................................................. 250 86 36 50 38 12

Goods-producing industries .......................... 50 25 7 18 12 6

Construction ............................................. 10 1 1 – – –

Manufacturing ........................................... 40 24 6 18 12 6

Service-producing industries ........................ 200 61 29 32 26 6

Tranportation and public utilities ............... 17 5 3 2 2 –

Wholesale and retail trade ........................ 99 22 13 9 9 –

Finance, insurance and real estate .......... 10 3 2 1 1 –

Services .................................................... 73 31 11 20 14 6

State and local government .............................. 28 22 6 16 10 6

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported. Overall industry and industry groups may include data for categories not shown separately.

25
Appendix table 2. Relative standard errors of mean hourly earnings1 for selected

occupations, all industries, private industry, and State and local government, all

workers2, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

(in percent)

Occupation3 All industries

Private

industry

State and

local

government

All occupations ....................................................................... 2.9 3.5 5.1

All occupations excluding sales ............................................ 3.1 3.8 5.1

White-collar occupations ................................................... 3.6 4.8 5.2

White-collar occupations excluding sales ......................... 3.7 5.0 5.2

Professional specialty and technical occupations ............ 3.1 5.4 3.6

Professional specialty occupations ............................... 3.1 6.8 3.4

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ....................... 9.4 9.4 –

Mathematical and computer scientists ..................... – – –

Health related occupations ....................................... 5.8 6.0 –

Registered nurses ................................................ 4.1 4.3 –

Teachers, college and university .............................. – – –

Teachers, except college and university .................. 1.3 – 1.2

Elementary school teachers ................................. 0.9 – 0.9

Secondary school teachers .................................. 1.4 – 1.4

Librarians, archivists, and curators ........................... – – –

Social, recreation, and religious workers .................. 4.4 – 4.5

Social workers ...................................................... 4.4 – 4.5

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes, and

professionals, N.E.C. .......................................... – – –

Technical occupations .................................................. 5.2 4.4 17.9

Licensed practical nurses ..................................... 3.8 3.8 –

Health technologists and technicians, N.E.C. ....... 19.9 – –

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ... 5.0 6.3 7.9

Executives, administrators, and managers ............... 5.7 7.6 8.2

Administrators and officials, public administration 18.8 – 18.8

Managers, medicine and health ........................... 23.1 – –

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. .................. 18.0 18.9 –

Management related occupations ............................ 6.8 – 9.9

Sales occupations ............................................................ 9.6 9.6 –

Sales workers, other commodities ........................ 12.5 12.5 –

Cashiers ............................................................... 6.2 6.2 –

Administrative support occupations, including clerical ..... 5.3 8.9 2.8

Secretaries ........................................................... 3.4 – 3.3

Records clerks, N.E.C. ......................................... 4.3 5.0 –

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks ...... 5.1 8.1 –

Stock and inventory clerks .................................... 12.1 18.3 –

General office clerks ............................................. 3.9 5.9 5.8

Teachers’ aides .................................................... 5.8 – 5.8

Blue-collar occupations ..................................................... 3.4 3.6 8.0

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .......... 6.8 9.0 9.5

Water and sewer treatment plant operators ......... 8.9 – 8.9

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors .............. 1.6 1.6 –

Textile sewing machine operators ........................ 1.5 1.5 –

Miscellaneous machine operators, N.E.C. ........... 5.9 5.9 –

Transportation and material moving occupations ............. 7.9 11.3 7.1

Truck drivers ......................................................... 13.8 14.4 –

Driver-sales workers ............................................. 5.6 5.6 –

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ...... 2.9 3.1 6.4

Helpers, construction trades ................................. 1.5 – –

Stock handlers and baggers ................................. 2.5 2.5 –

Freight, stock, and material handlers, N.E.C. ....... 11.2 11.2 –

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. ................... 8.7 12.8 5.7

Service occupations ........................................................... 2.6 2.5 4.8

Protective service occupations ................................. 8.5 – 6.7

Police and detectives, public service .................... 8.2 – 8.2

Food service occupations ......................................... 6.8 5.1 10.4

Waiters and waitresses ........................................ 11.1 11.1 –

Cooks ................................................................... 4.9 – –

Kitchen workers, food preparation ........................ 3.6 – –

Health service occupations ....................................... 2.5 2.9 –

Health aides, except nursing ................................ 2.2 3.5 –

See footnotes at end of table.

26
Appendix table 2. Relative standard errors of mean hourly earnings1 for selected

occupations, all industries, private industry, and State and local government, all

workers2, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998 — Continued

(in percent)

Occupation3 All industries

Private

industry

State and

local

government

Service occupations (-Continued)

Health service occupations (-Continued)

Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants ............... 3.2 3.6 –

Cleaning and building service occupations .............. 3.1 3.2 4.4

Maids and housemen ........................................... 3.7 3.7 –

Janitors and cleaners ........................................... 3.5 4.7 4.4

Personal service occupations ................................... 1.0 1.0 –

Welfare service aides ........................................... 0.9 0.0 –

1 The relative standard error is the standard error

expressed as a percent of the estimate. Hourly

earnings for these occupations are presented in Tables

A-1 and A-2. Reliable relative standard errors could

not be determined for all occupations. 2 All workers include full-time and part-time

workers. Employees are classified as working either a

full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition

used by each establishment. Therefore, a worker with

a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a

full-time employee in one establishment, but classified

as part-time in another firm, where a 40-hour week is

the minimum full-time schedule. 3 A classification system including about 480

individual occupations is used to cover all workers in

the civilian economy. Individual occupations are

classified into one of nine major occupational groups. 

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or

that data did not meet publication criteria. Overall

occupational groups and occupational levels may

include data for categories not shown separately. 

N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were

collected in this update survey. A procedure was put

into place to "move" the positional statistics where

averages were collected. This procedure compares

current locality survey data–at the quote level–with the

same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates

from the prior survey are moved by the average

change in mean wages for the occupation.

27
Appendix table 3. Average work levels for selected occupations, all workers,

full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

Occupation1 All

workers

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

All occupations ................................................................................. 4 5 2

All occupations excluding sales ...................................................... 4 5 2

White-collar occupations ............................................................. 6 6 3

White-collar occupations excluding sales ................................... 6 6 4

Professional specialty and technical occupations ...................... 7 7 6

Professional specialty occupations ......................................... 8 8 7

Engineers, architects, and surveyors ................................. 9 9 –

Mathematical and computer scientists ............................... – – –

Health related occupations ................................................. 8 8 –

Registered nurses .......................................................... 8 8 –

Teachers, college and university ........................................ – – –

Teachers, except college and university ............................ 8 8 –

Elementary school teachers ........................................... 8 8 –

Secondary school teachers ............................................ 8 8 –

Librarians, archivists, and curators ..................................... – – –

Social, recreation, and religious workers ............................ 7 7 –

Social workers ................................................................ 7 7 –

Writers, authors, entertainers, athletes, and professionals,

N.E.C. ........................................................................... – – –

Technical occupations ............................................................ 5 5 –

Licensed practical nurses ............................................... 5 5 –

Health technologists and technicians, N.E.C. ................. 5 5 –

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations ............. 10 10 –

Executives, administrators, and managers ......................... 10 10 –

Administrators and officials, public administration .......... 10 10 –

Managers, medicine and health ..................................... 9 9 –

Managers and administrators, N.E.C. ............................ 10 10 –

Management related occupations ...................................... 7 7 –

Sales occupations ...................................................................... 3 4 2

Sales workers, other commodities .................................. 2 2 –

Cashiers ......................................................................... 2 – 2

Administrative support occupations, including clerical ............... 3 3 3

Secretaries ..................................................................... 3 3 –

Records clerks, N.E.C. ................................................... 3 3 –

Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks ................ 3 3 –

Stock and inventory clerks .............................................. 4 4 –

General office clerks ....................................................... 3 3 –

Teachers’ aides .............................................................. 2 2 –

Blue-collar occupations ............................................................... 3 3 2

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations .................... 6 6 –

Water and sewer treatment plant operators ................... 4 4 –

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors ........................ 2 2 –

Textile sewing machine operators .................................. 2 2 –

Miscellaneous machine operators, N.E.C. ..................... 3 3 –

Transportation and material moving occupations ....................... 3 3 –

Truck drivers ................................................................... 3 3 –

Driver-sales workers ....................................................... 4 – –

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers ................ 2 2 2

Helpers, construction trades ........................................... 2 2 –

Stock handlers and baggers ........................................... 2 2 1

Freight, stock, and material handlers, N.E.C. ................. 2 – –

Laborers except construction, N.E.C. ............................. 2 2 –

Service occupations ..................................................................... 2 3 2

Protective service occupations ........................................... 5 5 –

Police and detectives, public service .............................. 6 6 –

Food service occupations ................................................... 2 3 2

Waiters and waitresses .................................................. 2 2 –

Cooks ............................................................................. 3 3 –

Kitchen workers, food preparation .................................. 1 – –

Health service occupations ................................................. 2 2 –

Health aides, except nursing .......................................... 2 3 –

Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants ......................... 2 2 –

Cleaning and building service occupations ........................ 2 2 2

Maids and housemen ..................................................... 1 1 –

Janitors and cleaners ..................................................... 2 2 –

See footnotes at end of table.

28
Appendix table 3. Average work levels for selected occupations, all workers,

full-time and part-time workers, Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito,TX, June 1998

— Continued

Occupation1 All

workers

Full-time

workers

Part-time

workers

Service occupations (-Continued)

Personal service occupations ............................................. 2 2 2

Welfare service aides ..................................................... 2 – 2

1 A classification system including about 480

individual occupations is used to cover all workers in

the civilian economy. Individual occupations are

classified into one of nine major occupational groups.

The occupations titled authors, musicians, actors,

painters, photographers, dancers, artists, athletes, and

legislators cannot be assigned a work level.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or

that data did not meet publication criteria. Overall

occupational groups and occupational levels may

include data for categories not shown separately. 

N.E.C. means "not elsewhere classified." 

NOTE: Individual and average wage rates were

collected in this update survey. A procedure was put

into place to "move" the positional statistics where

averages were collected. This procedure compares

current locality survey data–at the quote level–with the

same quote from the prior survey. Individual rates

from the prior survey are moved by the average

change in mean wages for the occupation.

29